Building up Supramolecular Edifices Dedicated to a Specific Function

For the last ten years, the concept of molecular electronics, remarkably well exemplified by the human brain, has prompted physical chemists to build up artificial molecular edifices tailored to carry out simple functions, such as molecular recognition or intermolecular cooperativity. This new branch of physical chemistry, namely molecular architecture, is presently explored in two main directions: i. the synthesis of supermolecules in which the functional groups are held together by chemical (covalent) bonds, and ii. the building up of functional supra-molecular edifices, made up of several molecules held together only by physical forces, each of the partners bearing a functional group. These two strategies differ mainly by: i. the amount of chemical synthetic work, which is much lower in the second method, and ii. the stability of the resulting molecular machinery, which is higher in the first strategy. Only the construction of supramolecular edifices will be concerned in this article.